Goofing

Your Cookie Is Broken. Return It.

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The fortune cookie maker Wonton Food has released less-than-upbeat messages in their cookies in response to consumers who wanted “more fortunes with actual predictions rather than cryptic sayings,” reports the NY Times. The reporter asks, “Was one writer having a bad day? (‘Perhaps you’ve been focusing too much on yourself.’) Were the cookies giving voice to worries about the economy or terrorism? (‘There may be a crisis looming, be ready for it.’)”

Here are some message suggestions: “What are you looking for, advice from a cookie?” “Don’t eat here again.” “She’s not the one for you.” “Make sure you still have your wallet.” “Reconsider.” “Refinance.” “Ask for a refund.”

Any suggestions you have?

Writing

Did She Slap Him or Not?

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Here’s an example for a discussion on word usage. Philip Klein, writing for the excellent American Spectator, has an article on Mrs. Clinton with the title, “Hillary Slaps Iowa Voter.” I first heard of this article in a passing comment on the radio.

“Oh my soul!” I said. “She slapped someone at a rally?”

No, she didn’t. She argued, patronized, and told a voter he didn’t know what he was talking about. The voter said, “[She] was basically calling me stupid. That I can’t think on my own.” He also used a vulgar verb closely related to “slap” to further describe his feelings, but there was no swift-moving hand or skin contact.

So read the article and tell me what you think. Is the headline an exaggeration?

Uncategorized

Possible Broadway Strike Coming

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The League of American Theaters and Producers is talking to the stagehands’ union, but they apparently are not seeing things eye-to-eye. I can only assume they are both arguing in good faith.

In related news, Broadway gross sales were up $1.7 million overall last weekend.

Poetry

Onward, Men, To the Future!

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Here’s a fun poem by Mark Jarman, printed in The New Criterion.

When we arrive, the future will adore us

As being so much better than it expected.

We went to school with thugs and contagion.

We went to school with tidal waves and felons.

And we turned out OK. We’re at the future!

. . . Read on

Uncategorized

Instant Canyon, Just Add Water

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Did you see this story on a new canyon in Texas? “A torrent of water from an overflowing lake sliced open the earth in 2002, exposing rock formations, fossils and even dinosaur footprints in just three days,” reports Michelle Roberts. The article goes on to compare this, the Canyon Lake Gorge which is 80 feet deep, to the Grand Canyon, which it says took much longer to form. I bring it up here because it is the very thing creationists point to as evidence of canyons and caves forming during the massive rush of water that flooded the earth several thousand years ago.

Being a failed intellectual, I think that’s all I can write in this post.

The Press

Is the Media Trustworthy?

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“Less than half of Americans, regardless of partisanship, have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the mass media,” according to a Gallup poll.

You know, I suspect it is actually responsible for media outlets to simply repeat what officials have said. The other day I heard a brief report in which the Republicans said a bill extended its target audience and the Democrats said the bill did not. Is that not a matter for media investigation, something they can verify independent of the officials quoted? The bill either covers the same number or types of people as it did before or it covers more or less. And if it can’t be determined because of the murkiness of the bill’s language, then the lawmakers should be ridiculed. This is just one point of distrust I have for most media outlets.

Religion

Dark Humor

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Charles Colson writes, “Darwinist accounts of human morality bear such little resemblance to the way real people live their lives that the late philosopher Michael Stove, an atheist himself, called them a ‘slander against human beings.’ . . . Nietzsche would laugh—and wonder why they don’t make atheists like they used to.”

Book Reviews, Creative Culture